Popularity of the mini van, the sport utility vehicle and the recreational vehicle has resulted in increased demand for improved collapsible furniture and particularly collapsible portable furniture of the outdoor type which may be readily stowed in a vehicle and conveniently manually transported to a picnic area or the site of a spectator event, such as, for example, an outdoor concert, a sporting event, a golf tournament, or an air show, where the general rule is to bring your own seating accommodations.
Considerable attention has been directed to the provision of improved collapsible furniture for the picnicker, sportsman, hunter, fisherman, hiker, biker and the like. However, the resulting furniture designs and particularly the designs for chairs and seats have usually incorporated some reduction in size, as compared to the full-sized article, with a corresponding reduction in the level of seating comfort. The wooden beach chairs and lawn furniture of an earlier era has generally been replaced by light-weight tubular metal furniture of a more modern design. However, little has been done to optimize the collapsibility and portability of the full-sized article, which is a goal of the present invention.
One foldable chair design available on the market is known as a director's chair. A director's chair generally comprises a chair frame that folds side-to-side with a scissors action. A conventional director's chair design is illustrated in FIG. 1 in its set-up condition and in FIG. 2 in its collapsed condition. Generally, such a chair comprises transversely spaced apart right and left frame side assemblies of mirrored design interconnected by cross-members that can be folded together to collapse the chair to a generally flat condition. The seat and back of the chair are made of canvas or a similar strong fabric which bears the user's full weight and can be collapsed with the frame. Generally, the seat and scissored cross-members work together to support and distribute the sitter's weight in a set-up chair so that the seat is comfortably taut.
Such prior art chairs provide the convenience of easy fold-up, and are lightweight so as to permit easy transportability. Common uses for such chairs are at the beach or at a picnic where easy set-up and break-down, as well as the ability to carry the chair along with other things, is desirable. However, a common problem with the prior art director's chair design is that in folding the chair from a collapsed condition to a setup condition, or from the setup condition to the collapsed condition, there is a “snapping” action that can present a finger pinch. This is a result of the design of the frame, in which the frame members that support the fabric back support tend to spread apart as the chair is folded.
Spreading of the back support members stretches the fabric back support, causing the fabric to act as a spring.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a director's chair that can be folded between a collapsed condition and a setup condition without snapping or finger pinching. Further, there is a need for such a chair that can be folded with minimal effort, without limiting or compromising the structural features of the chair. Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a foldable and portable director's chair design that overcomes the problems and drawbacks associated with folding director's chairs, and therefore significantly improves the utility of such a chair while permitting easy transportation and/or storage in a collapsed condition.
The present invention addresses these issues, and provides a means to circumvent the associated drawbacks of such prior art foldable chair designs.